Army vet was part of amphibious unit

Something like 671,000 Americans earned Purple Hearts during World War II.

One of those medals belongs to Harry Tucker.

Tucker, now retired in St. Augustine, leads a peaceful existence these days. He and the former Catherine Solano, his wife of 59 years, live off State Road 16, in the same house they have shared for 57 years.

For the most part, the neighborhood is quiet enough for visitors to hear the wind slip through a sea gull's feathers.

The only disruption is the unsettling chorus of bulldozers and chainsaws, a daily reminder that development is closing in.

But life wasn't always so tranquil for Harry Tucker.

Born in Jacksonville, Ill., Tucker worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps as a teen-ager, building roads, camps and bridges across Illinois.

Thinking the United States "probably" would wind up in the war that was rolling across Europe, Tucker went to Joliet, Ill., and joined the U.S. Army.

The reason for enlisting was simple.

"Patriotic," he said, with a definite nod of his head.

After considerable training as a medic, Tucker and the rest of the 532nd Amphibious Brigade left Fort Ord, Calif., in January 1943.

Their destination was Cairns, Australia, near the Great Barrier Reef in the northeast corner of the country.

The brigade, "pioneers in amphibious warfare," was on a mission to teach amphibious landing operations to the Australian 9th Division.

It wasn't all work, however.

"Somewhere in this time I was one of the lucky guys who furloughed in Sydney, Australia, for a few days," said Tucker, relishing the memory.

Finally, time came to put all that training into practice.

Tucker's brigade moved to Morobe, on the north shore of New Guinea.

The soldiers then "set out for a landing behind (Japanese) lines at Nassau Bay," Tucker said.

"Never before in the Southwest Pacific had the Allies attempted a landing behind the Japanese lines," he added.

Stories of combat in New Guinea are not as well known as those in other theaters, such as Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal and Okinawa. But dozens of battles, fought between January 1943 and December 1944, were as fierce as those that became highlights in the history books.

The Allies' goal was to work their way across New Guinea, the world's second-largest island (behind Greenland), then move on to liberate the Philippines.

The Japanese were the most obvious enemies facing the Allies. But they weren't the only ones.

The most formidable opponents may have been dengue fever, dysentery and typhus.

Soldiers also had to contend with the elements.

In the southeastern part of the country, around Port Moresby, most of the rains fall between January and April.

But that's not where the Australians, Tucker and the rest of the 532nd Amphibious Brigade were fighting.

A formidable mountain range forms the island's spine. The mangrove swamps that dominate the landscape on the north side of that range may absorb as many as 300 inches of rain a year.

One war veteran was quoted as saying, "It rains daily for nine months, and then the monsoon starts."

Because of the Allies' successes on the island during two years of steady combat, the Japanese were forced to divert men and munitions that would have been used to defend the Philippines.

During that landing behind Japanese lines, Tucker quickly learned, "It was every man for himself."

"We were all just trying to survive," he said. "It was rough.

"We were more or less setting up for the others to come up behind us and fight, too."

The heaviest fighting came in September-November 1943 around Scarlet Beach, in a bay on the island's east coast.

The Japanese fought fiercely. If the beach was lost, they wouldn't be able to continue moving supplies and soldiers between New Guinea and New Britain.

"I felt fortunate I was a member of the medical unit and not out in the field with the hand-to-hand fighting," Tucker said. "But there were a couple of situations that got kind of hairy. Usually, we had luck with us."

At that time, the force of Americans and Australians was introduced to a character later immortalized in a 1963 television episode of "McHale's Navy."

He became known as "Washing Machine Charlie."

"He was the night pilot -- just one plane -- who dropped bombs every night to kill and aggravate," Tucker recalled. "His plane sounded like a washing machine.

"They would drop bombs if they knew anyone was there or not."

One encounter was almost fatal.

"This single plane came in, and we all took to our foxholes for protection," said Tucker.

"What I remember next is one fellow got ahold of my jacket and started shaking me and pulling me up from the foxhole.

"I was really buried down in there.

"Come to find out I had a concussion and a ruptured eardrum. The eardrum is perfectly all right now. But that's why I was awarded the Purple Heart."

Tucker was the lucky one. His captain and a lieutenant died in the explosion.

Immediately after the war, Tucker joined the Florida National Guard. He worked for the Navy in Green Cove Springs, then transferred to Mayport Naval Base, where he worked in plumbing and pipefitting.

After five years, he joined the National Guard Reserve, then transferred to the Seabee Reserve.